AustralianSuper has locked horns with the $92 billion Future Fund over the latter’s acquisiton of a stake in Perth Airport in an unprecedented move that will pit two of the country’s biggest investment funds against each other.

Australia’s biggest industry super scheme has launched legal proceedings against the Future Fund, nearly 10 months after threatening to take the fund to court over its $875 million purchase of a 29.7 per cent stake in the Western Australian airport.

AustralianSuper, which oversees $70 billion of assets and on behalf of more than 2 million members, lodged a writ in the Victorian Supreme Court late on Wednesday night, but gave no figure for damages.

Until now, AustralianSuper has only applied to the court to force the Future Fund to hand over documents that would help it decide whether to sue.

The Future Fund said it would vigorously defend the case.

The Future Fund has consistently and strongly maintained that it has acted appropriately at all times," the Future Fund said.

“By making an offer of $2 billion to acquire Australian Infrastructure Fund’s assets and in the end securing around half of the total, this transaction unlocked value for Australian Infrastructure Fund shareholders and the many other investors in the assets, which included a range of airport assets across Australia and internationally," the Future Fund said.

The Future Fund is expected to argue that the price it allocated to Perth Airport was within the range of AustralianSuper’s own valuations.

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AustralianSuper owned 5 per cent of Perth Airport and was hoping to raise its holding to 15 per cent by exercising pre-emptive rights over the asset.

AustralianSuper argued that by applying a 43 per cent premium to the price of Perth Airport’s carrying value, the terms of shareholder agreements related to the asset were breached.

It claimed that as a result of the price assigned to the airport, Australia’s ­biggest industry fund was deprived of its rights to increase its stake in Perth Airport, or had reduced the value of AustralianSuper’s pre-emptive rights.

AustralianSuper had asked the Future Fund to hand over five documents relating to the purchase of Perth Airport. The fund, which was set up in 2006 to oversee the pensions of commonwealth government staff, agreed to send some but not all of the documents requested. However, it is understood that the information was sufficient to give AustralianSuper comfort it had a strong case against the Future Fund.